2016/11/06

The Traction Terminal had his big emblematic iron structure, the train shed. But there was also a smaller structure, the skylight of the waiting room. This element was nearly hidden for everybody.

From the exterior, it was neither visible from the train shed nor for from Market Street. In fact, it was enclosed by walls and could only be seen when looking out of the windows of the western side of the Terminal Building.

2016/10/21

I took advantage of the last heat and the nice light of fall to take the Traction Terminal to the outdoors for a photo sesssion. Gretchen, the plastic cow, is looking to it from the background. The Terminal looks good. Let's go on and add doors and windows. And tracks also, of course.

2016/10/17

Some weeks ago I recieved the first test print of the Yakima Valley Niles Combine #100. This unique short Interurban car was developed using parts of other Niles cars. The car arrived in Yakima on July 1910 and was first painted in yellow and cream. Up from 1916, the car was painted in a dark green, probably Pullman green.

For the moment, the car is coated with a dark brown primer, looking like chocolate.

The car was running on Standard C50 trucks with 34" wheels and 6'6" wheelbase. For the model, I choose two NWSL Stanton drives No 39274-4.

The frame has an interior plate with seating. The characteristic bell is part of the kit. Pilots and truss rods are a part of the frame, which is printed in Shapeway's solid White Strong & Flexible plastic. The carbody is made of Fine Ultra Detail FUD.

The nearly daily participation to this groups made me forget my own blog. There is no harm in it, if there wasn't the loss of depth and continuity.

I learn much participating to the Facebook groups, but they have two big failings:

1/ they are closed groups. This maintains a civilised and spam-free environment, but casual visitors will no more passing by.

2/ The Facebook group is living only for the moment, there is no real memory, older posts disappear quickly and are hard to find later.

This groups are a sympathic café for traction enthousiasts, you need to come in frequently, but they are not a base to study and build seriously traction models with your own hands.

Slowly, a certain Social Media fatigue is growing. Things worsened recently for me, as I am working now full time for Social Media News Wires. It may sound great to spend the whole labor day on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, but in the end it's work, and I can say you it's really hard work.

This said, I will now go back to the roots. I'll always stay on the Facebook Groups, because it's a nice café, perhaps just one publication less per week. In return, I will try to write a weekly story on my old fashioned blog, with photos, drawings, and a bit more text.

2016/07/06

Some important progress was made with the HO model of the Indianapolis Traction Terminal. The cutting of a ground plate permits now safe test mounts of the train shed and the adjacent waiting room.

Indiana Historical Society. Photo Bass

It is nice to see that all parts fit extraordinary well together (except some small but idiot mistakes that you won't see, when I need to use a cutting knife or some extra glue...) Anyway, a project of this size cannot grew up without trials and tribulations ....

Some important progress was made with the HO model of the Indianapolis Traction Terminal. The cutting of a ground plate permits now safe test mounts of the train shed and the adjacent waiting room.

Indiana Historical Society. Photo Bass

It is nice to see that all parts fit extraordinary well together (except some small but idiot mistakes that you won't see, when I need to use a cutting knife or some extra glue...) Anyway, a project of this size cannot grew up without trials and tribulations ....

2016/01/15

Building cars is frustrating if you cannot if you cannot ride them. Travelling frequently, I build a portable test track able to get stored in aircraft luggage. The "layout" is composed of four 2 mm thick PVC sheets, measuring each 500 x 250 mm. The whole "layout" is 1000 x 500 mm
Flexible tracks are glued directly on the sheets. Turnouts are from Peco, trackwork is Tillig.
The circuit has three radii: 204 mm, 158 mm and 112 mm. One sheet is less than 1 cm thick, the whole layout piled up measures 500 x 250 x 50 mm.

This layout is primarily destined for test purposes, baut I will also use it as a playground for paving, sanding and grassing. And just to see the cars running.